Sunday, July 30, 2006

Open Forum

If anyone is taking pictures of the last week of the primary campaign, and wants to see them published on this site, send them in! You'll get as much or as little credit as you want. Click on "about" for my email address.

28 comments:

I'm getting concerned that Malloy is starting to get the momentum back. His direct mail from the last week has been terrific and he looks like he's getting ready to take on the Governor.

JDS is definitely the better candidate. Universal health care is a right for everyone. His support from labor unions and particularly public employee unions shows that he knows what is important. A JDS governorship will result in health care for all, and for public employees, it will be health care covered in full by employers, even in retirement.

JDS is married to a teacher who enjoys lifetime tenure. JDS no doubt knows the value of tenure and the security it provides to working families. I'm hopeful that he will see merit in extending tenure to all employees, but particularly public employees.

A tax on millionaires should also be part of his agenda. Shifting wealth from the haves to the struggling middle-class is an ideal of liberal Democrats like JDS.

An important component of any wealth-shifting proposal should include a state estate tax which would place limits on legacies. JDS is the only candidate out there who could be persuaded to endorse such a plan.

In short, JDS will prove to be the favorite son of labor unions and workers and it would be a mistake to support Malloy's vision of a business-friendly government which seeks to make the state stronger for business, at the expense of workers.

I love how Connecticut Local Politics has become a place where progressive ideas gets a ritual bashing. Is this a conservative political site now? Maybe we should call this "Connecticut Republican Politics?"

Universal healthcare IS a right, and if you think that labor unions are as corrupt as they once were during the 1960's then you've been sleeping for a while. No matter how you feel towards them, they're the only political entity that actually seeks to protect workers. If they weren't there, Let's see how many more Wal-Mart workers go on HUSKY.

"Malloy is more business-friendly" is Courant code for "he's more Republican and DLC so we trust him on backing corporations rather than working people."

Please remember, The Courant endorsed Bush in 2000 and 2004, and now they show their true colors again by endorsing DLC hacks like Lieberman and Malloy.

Well, then, I guess we need to understand what your definition of a "right" is. The

Healthcare isn't free. Therefore, in order to provide healthcare to everyone, we are going to have to take from someone (via taxes) to pay the doctor so you can have your right.

So you now have the "right" to take from others to provide you with your right.

I'm not arguing the merits of universal health care, but instead am arguing solely on your view of what a right might be. If universal health care, or food, or education, or housing, is a right, then that means that the government has to take from someone else to give to you.

There may many valid reasons to provide education, housing, food or medical care to some or all of the populace, but I strongly disagree that these things can ever be construed as rights, since I do not believe that a right for you can impose a burden on someone else.

It seems like all the liberals have already left and become My Left Nutmeggers.

It's pretty obvious nowadays, since Lamont and DeStefano get torn apart here on CLP whereas they are treated favorably on MLN.

I think maybe CLP and MLN have taken two different approaches to the blogosphere. CLP is taking the "open forum, virtual town hall" format. MLN has tapped into the netroots as defined by Kos. Most of the bloggers over at MLN are not shy about their progressive persuasions for either Lamont or DeStefano. Whereas here, the admins have tried very hard to be more journalistic - more neutral.

I don't know which format will win out in the future. But here's my thinking (and this isn't knocking anyone): isn't the CLP format already adopted by newspapers? And now I hear that you guys are doing endorsements??

I don't know, but that's not how I envision the blogosphere. We want to be recognized, but doing endorsements to me is...an attempt to project a sense of influence that is most typical of establishment types. Maybe CLP is shooting for that? I don't know.

Funny, I just did a quick lexis search and I found that in the U.S. Constitution and the Connnecticut Constitution there is no right to "universal" health care, chocolate ice cream or cable TV. One could argue that there should be for all three, but saying so doesn't make it so. (Maybe I was using the wrong search terms.)

I'm not sure what universal health care really means anymore- managed care is awful, but it is care. The malpractice premiums are getting out of sight- any of you trial lawyers out there, I don't blame ya, but would you buy me a drink sometime?

and if you think that labor unions are as corrupt as they once were during the 1960's then you've been sleeping for a while. No matter how you feel towards them, they're the only political entity that actually seeks to protect workers.

Union leadership lines their pockets with the dues of those of who sweat. I'm glad that you concede that they are not as corrupt as the 1960s- but we were sending union bosses to jail through the 1980s in this state. They were spending so much time protecting their cadillacs that they wound up driving much of the heavy industry out of Connecticut at an egregiously accelerated pace. (Even if it was inevitable.) Some protection of workers, indeed.

Labor unions never create jobs- except for jobs in their own leadership with your money. Employers create them. I have no problem with unions as watchdogs, but unions that protect deadwood public employees- whose interest does that serve?

No doubt, in the short term, tapping into the netroots' activism and energy will be very successful.

But in the long run... I believe that CLP will endure. This place isn't tied to or based on any one thing. There's a wide range of opinion here--perhaps wider than any political space on the web today. Conservative Republicans post in the same threads as liberal Democrats and everyone in between and all are welcome.

We want to turn away from one another, but it's better to engage and defend our positions. I learn something new every day.

I think it's a format with a lot of promise. Blogs that are only one thing miss half of America.

The problem was that the "Nutmeggers" tried to drown out everbody else, and couldn't stand an open, freewheeling discussion.

I have to say this puzzles me, since the reception I've had over there while voicing a differing point of view has generally been fine, and I see a lot of thoughtful stuff there from BranfordBoy and others, along with the familiar spew of certain individuals.

And, y'know... they kinda all hate Lieberman (although they don't like it to be said that they do). So there is that.

Hey Fat Guy, there are only 300 medical malpractice lawsuits filed in Ct every year and it's been that way since 1986 when the GA put in place lwas to protect the doctors; insurance premiums are up for everyone and it's a businees matter; if you take the time to lok at thison the need for patient safety andthis from a guy who has actually taken time to understand the issue, you wouldn't blame the trial attorneys when you should be blaming the bad doctors and the state that allows them to practice here over and over and over again. I used to be able to link the annual report from the doctor owned and operatedCT Medical Insurance Company but I guess they got embarrased and pulled it or you might want to get publication to learn how bad the quality of healthcare is in this country and , of course, godd luck with your procedure because you may need it.

AHH Hah, I found the annual report of the malpractice insurance company owned and operated by CT Doctors for CT Doctors and others linked here but it's for 2005 and I admit I haven't read this one but I am sure it will show the company is doing quite well just as I found when I read the 2004 report - look at the numbers and not the rhetoric.

and Ralph Nader can be a little bit of a pessismist but this State Medical Board Information review is fairly neutral in its approach and not unexpected for CT where lobbyists, like the medical socities and hospital organizations, own the legislature and sometimes the governor, too.

A claim may be settled before going to trial but it still gets settled; for instance a claim was settled in Norwalk a few months ago for $13 million after an anesthesiologist put his victim into a Terry Schiavo state - it was the second time the doctor did so in a matter of years and finnalyy he's gone now.;and your fee schedule for attorneys is way off and you might want to consider what it costs to bring a lwasuit; You may wish to consider that not too long ago a kid went into a hospital for a routine procedure and came out without his legs amputated becasue the doctor sewed up his aorta by mistake; or you may just wish to take your doctor's word for everything.